In my last post I mentioned the plan for Run Auckland 2 was to line up near the 45:00 pacers and "give it a nudge". Pretty simple and for the first 3km or so it was looking good. Glancing at my watch at I think it was just on 12 minutes so close to 4 min/km pace. Going through my mind was this hey this is pretty fast might be a challenge to hold this pace till the end.
Shortly after that though felt my left achilles twinge a little enough for me to ease up and then a pretty bad pain in my calf. I think its a pulled muscle. I can't recall excatly but it may have happened on one of the uphill bits or on gravel.After turning the air blue with a naughty word (bad form in public!) hobbled along at a walk. Lots of people blasted past including Andrew and an old friend I hadn't seen for a while. Maybe getting injured is a perhaps a good way to meet new people?
It also gave me a sudden shift in perspective for the race goal rather that trying to get a PB (under 42:47) or even clock in a solid sub 50:00 time I was now just going to try and finish.
Got to the 5km mark in just over 30 minutes and seriously thought about pulling out there and then. However the pain was subsiding a bit and thought at the very least could walk the second loop to finish. Found adjusting my running gait to slow shuffle running on the flats and downhills was possible with only slight discomfort. Had to walk the uphills. Got a comment from someone near the back of the pack when walking up an incline that I was "as bad as they were" walking up a hill. No shame in that I said and we a brief chat about how everyone starts out walk/running.
Finished in 1:01:49 which is a lot slower than I set out to do but I'm glad managed to get to the end.
Met Andrew again at the finish - turns out he had got a personal best on this distance which was awesome for him. Congratulations!
My little sister T came in at 1:16 and change shaving 5 minutes off Race 1. Great stuff! T runs with an ipod and she puts her improved performance down to a better play list. The first race all she had on the ipod was a podcast about Israel and the middle east. Sure it's interesting but would you run to it? :)
Here are positives and negatives.
Positives:
- finishing the race
- finally meeting blogger Andrew after attending a number of races
- seeing an old friend in the same race
- not letting my sister beat me - ha
Negatives:
- injury. :( At 34 not getting any younger so need to pay special attention to better stretching. Actually I'm trying to be circumspect about it all and trying to learn from the experience. Got to have a positive attitude about it all
I'm not running again for at least a week. If I'm pain free then will try and ease back into things. If not will rest more. My next run is scheduled on the 10 May on a dead flat course. At the very least I'll be OK to walk it.
This week I plan to: rest; do some walking; and some core excerices. I also have a couple of books from the local library on marathons and marathon training. Might even post a review or two here for something a bit different.
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3 comments:
Bad luck, make sure you ice it plenty for the next week or so and then try some gentle stretching.
Well done for finishing, many wouldn't have been that tough especially on a course that was 2 laps.
Hope the calf recovers quickly.
Bad luck indeed! I know how you feel! Looks like you're planning to do the right thing, which is good.
And hey - at least it's happening now, so you can get some advice and sort out any issues early.
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